Grade 6 - Writing

• Unit 1

• Unit 2

• Unit 3

Session 1

• Becoming engaged with a topic

• Compliment conferences can support engagement

• Pause early to organize notes

• Following a topic

Session 2

• Reading for a wide view of a topic: Teen activism

• Using a light touch to keep researchers learning

• Writing while reading to learn

• A dual learning focus: Note-taking and teen activism

Session 3

• Writing from moments that really matter

• Coaching students into bare-bones essay writing

• Illustrating patterns that apply to any cases in point

• Creating parallel key points for a topic and evidence to go with it

Session 4

• Structure sets you free: Using prior knowledge to flash-draft essays

• Planning for future teaching using student work

• Coach writers to refer to and cite text evidence

• Using partners as a resource for feedback

Session 5

• The trail of research: Pursuing information and focusing in on topics

• Channel coalition groups to pursue trails of inquiry

• Transferring lessons learned earlier to this new research

• Charting a research trail

Session 6

• Envisioning structures to plan an information book

• Imagining the evolution of your teaching

• Revising chapters for structure

• Sharing compliments and suggestions for revision

Session 7

• Constructing texts with solid bricks of information

• Ways to revise on chapter and plan another

• Using transition words

• Partners teach each other their new chapters

Session 8

• Research: Gathering specific information and creating meaning

Session 9

• Writing and detail

• Revising by rereading through particular lenses

• Bringing out the words that people say

• Writers hold themselves to high standards as they self-assess

Session 10

• Lifting the level of sentence complexity

• Varying sentence length

• Pronoun agreement

• Editing with partners using a checklist

Session 11

• Using text features to strengthen writing

• A repertoire of further, related teaching points

• A well-paced text feature is worth a thousand words

• A text-feature gallery walk

Session 12

• Planning ready-to-go-chapters

• Support trying more than one structure

• Crafting introductions that frame each chapter

• Writing an introduction to the whole book

Session 13

• Quoting with a purpose in mind

• Weaving quotations into writing with transitional phrases

• Not just leading into quotations; Leading out of quotations

• Introducing the source and explaining the tie-in

Session 14

• Celebrating with a book exhibit tour

Session 15

• Studying digital mentor texts

• Coaching writers to glean more from mentor texts

• Planning for websites and digital slide show presentations

• Relying on partnerships to stregthen prototypes

Session 16

• Revising to fit digital formats: Determining importance

• Coaching students to tackle planning challenges

• Creating plans that have a logical flow

• Putting extra information into presentation notes

Session 17

• Pouring into digital forms and publishing

Session 18

• Celebration: Presentations, Feedback, Reflection